Meador

MEMORANDUM *

William Meador appeals the district court’s dismissal of his suit filed against Pleasant Valley State Prison officials alleging that the opening outside of his presence of returned mail he had sent to a court violated his constitutional rights. Meador argues that in opening his letter to the court outside of his presence, prison officials interfered with his constitutional right of access to the courts, grounded in the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. The district court dismissed his complaint for failure to state a claim, holding that because the mail at issue appeared to come from the California Court of Appeal, it did not constitute constitutionally protected “legal mail,” and permissibly could be opened outside of his presence.

We review de novo the district court’s dismissal based on failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, Resnick v. Hayes, 213 F.3d 443, 447 (9th Cir.2000), and treat each of Meador’s factual allegations as true, drawing all reasonable inferences in his favor. See, e.g., Gompper v. VISX, Inc., 298 F.3d 893, 896 (9th Cir.2002); TwoRivers v. Lewis, 174 F.3d 987, 991 (9th Cir.1999). In addition, we…